Thomas ‘Satch’ Sanders did ‘dirty work’

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SPRINGFIELD — Defensive master, intellectual, pivotal helper of his fellow NBA brethren — Thomas “Satch” Sanders could have followed many routes in his Hall of Fame acceptance speech last night.

But there simply wasn’t time. The 72-year-old Celtic, in chronicling his rich life, instead took the advice of his one-time adversary, Sixers guard and Golden State coach and executive Al Attles, who once told him, “When you’re speaking publicly, remember the three B’s — be brief, brother.”

But Sanders, inducted as a contributor for his pivotal role in development of the NBA’s oft-copied player programs, still covered a lot of ground despite that brevity.

He poked fun at his presenter and former teammate Tom Heinsohn, saying, “Tom Heinsohn’s passing ability has always been in question, but I really liked the way he passed me off just there — thanks.”

He talked about the Celtics, playing basketball at NYU and growing up in New York. He talked about his wealth of influences.

“All of you have heard the saying it takes a village to raise a child. Well, I’m certainly the result of such village-raising. Great friends, family members, adult friends and school teachers — all of them aggressively taught discipline and effort while utilizing the non-sparing of the rod, the back of the hand, the strap. My sister Dorothy supplemented my allowance from her paycheck. Let me tell you, that’s a serious sister.”

He then got down to business, and shed a little light into his drive to become such an accomplished defensive player in a sport that offers such instant gratification in the offensive end.

“Watching (New York’s) Mel Hutchins guard Bill Sharman that made me really begin to think about playing serious defense,” he said. “I don’t know how many of you remember Mel Hutchins, but he was very smooth on the ‘D.’ ”

Earlier in the week, though, Heinsohn found it difficult to discuss Sanders without bringing up his life as a player.

“(Bob) Cousy and (Bill) Russell were the leaders on offense and defense, and both needed a time during a game to shine, but Satch did all of the dirty work — go guard the toughest guy on the other team,” said Heinsohn. “(Elgin) Baylor would go for 40 points, and Satch would have done a helluva job on him. He should have made it (into the Hall) way before he did.

“But when they started looking at his stats, that would tick me off,” he said. “He was as responsible for those titles as any player we had.”

The “dirty work” reference made Sanders laugh.

“An offensive player like Heinie would consider defense a dirty job,” said the 72-year-old Sanders.

But unlike fellow 2011 inductee Dennis Rodman, who built a career by almost disdaining offense, Sanders actually took pride in his scoring.

He, too, once had a 40-point game, as an NYU senior against the University of Denver. It’s still the 10th highest scoring performance in NYU history.

It’s just that Red Auerbach was singularly unimpressed by Sanders’ hidden talent.

“I tried to sell Auerbach on the fact that I had a good offensive game,” he said. “He wasn’t having it. I was like, I was a good scorer in college and he said, ‘Fine, but here it’s defensive rebounds. We have plenty of guys who could score. You just focus on what I want to focus on.’ It was very clear that my role was carved in granite.”

But there were opportunities to score, if he beat the guards down the floor.

“I was able to beat Heinsohn down, and that was the only time I could get more shots than Heinsohn,” he said with a laugh.